Inspired by this question, I got interested in the question of halakhic punishment for thoughts of sin?
In general, the Torah is not so concerned and doesn't judge how people feel or what their desires are. It is mainly concerned in how we act.
On one side
- the gmara in Kiddushin 40a explicitly says that Hashem doesn’t regard a bad thought that doesn’t lead to action as an action (artscroll comments “hence there is no punishment for the thought”)
- another gmara (end of Bava Batra 164b) says all men think of sin every single day (presumably meaning it is not punishable)
On the other side
- later in Kiddushin 40a the gmara says that thoughts of sins one has performed and now considers permitted are punished
- in Shabbat 64a we see the army returning from the war in Midian offered a korban to atone against their lustful thoughts
- R Chaim mi Volozhin writes (Nefesh HaChaim, gate 1, ch. 4) that the body is like a mishkan, the mind is the kodesh hakodashim and thinking unclean thoughts is a desecration even greater than defiling the Kodesh Hakodoshim since the Mishkan is physical and the mind is even more holy and spiritual
So how is the halakha judging thoughts of sin? Are specific halakhic works codifying this (as opposed to more philosophical discussions)?
No comments:
Post a Comment